Cnn
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President Donald Trump made a series of false claims on prices and trade – most of which have done before – in the Wednesday speech in which he announced a Set of global prices.
Here is a verification of the facts of certain remarks of Trump.
Trump has properly noted that Canada has prices greater than 250% on certain American dairy products. However, he falsely claimed that “the first small cardboard of milk” exported to Canada faces a “very low price”, but “then it reaches 275,300%”.
In reality, Canada has guaranteed tens of thousands of metric tonnes of American milk imported per year, not just a single card, will face zero prices at all; Canada conceded a certain guaranteed level From access to the United States without a price to its dairy market as part of the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement that Trump’s first administration has negotiated.
Trump also did not mention something the American dairy industry recognize: The United States does not strike its maximum level of zero rate to exports to Canada in any category of dairy products, so that Canadian prices are not applied; Regarding milk in particular, the United States is not even half quota without price. (There is a vigorous debate from the United States Canada on the reasons why the United States is so far from the maximum, each country blaming the other. No matter who is right, the prices do not hit milk.)
Trump has constantly omitted key facts on the dairy prices of Canada. You can find out more here from a previous CNN facts.
Trump, saying “we subsidize a lot of countries,” said that “it’s nearly $ 200 billion a year” with Canada. Trump has repeatedly used this 200 billion dollars figure to describe the American trade deficit with Canada in particular, which is actually much less than $ 200 billion; Official American statistics Show that the 2024 deficit in Canada in the goods and services trade was $ 35.7 billion and $ 70.6 billion in trade in goods.
Trump did not mention the trade deficit in particular this time, but even if he intended to use the word “subsidize” more broadly, there is no complaint.
Trump repeated his frequent false statement that, due to the prices he imposed on China during his first mandate, the United States “took hundreds of billions of dollars” which they “paid”. In fact, American importers, not foreign exporters like China, Carry out pricing paymentsAndStudy after studynoted that the Americans wore the overwhelming majority of the cost of Trump prices on China; It’s easy to findspecific examplesCompanies that have succeeded in prices for American consumers.
Trump also repeated his frequent false statement that, before his first presidency, China “never paid 10 cents to any other president” from prices. Aside from the fact that we, importersCarry out pricing payments The United States was actuallygenerate billions a year in incomePrices on Chinese imports before Trump takes up his duties; In fact, the United States has had prices on Chinese imports since1789 . Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama,Additional prices imposedon Chinese products.
Touting the supposed advantages of prices, Trump claimedthat “the United States was proportionally the richest it has ever been” from 1789 to 1913, when the prices represented a higher percentage of federal income before the adoption of a 1913 law restoring federal income tax.
Trump did not explain what he meant by “proportionally the richest”, but by standard measures, the United States is much richer today than at the beginning of the 20th century and before. The gross domestic product per capita isnow several times higherthat it was then.
Douglas Irwin A teacher of economics at the Dartmouth College who studies the history of American trade policy, said in February after Trump had made similar claims, that if Trump’s clear comments are not interpreted as being on per capita income, because “economists generally take this”, it is “obviously not true”, because it is pleasant to have a softener, limits and limits.
Irwin then noted that it is possible that Trump refers to the way in which the federal government After the civil war“Launched coherent budgetary surpluses and has almost reimbursed the national debt”, because “it seems to see the government take more money than it spends as enriching the country.” Irwin added, however, that “the major tax surpluses do not make a country rich in itself”.
Inflation under Biden and Trump
Trump falsely said that during the presidency of Joe Biden, the United States had “the highest” of inflation “in the history of our country”. Trump could have said roughly that the United States from one year on the nextinflation ratereached a 40 -year -old summit in June 2022, when it was 9.1%, but it was not close to all timesaveof23.7%, located in 1920. (And the rate then dropped. Inflation in the last full month of the Biden administration, December 2024, was 2.9%; it was 3% in January 2025One month in part under Biden and partly under Trump.)
Trump also said that there was “practically no inflation” during his first presidency. He gave himself the room for maneuver with the word “virtually”, but it should be noted that there was inflation in his first four years in power; Prices have increasedabout 8%From the start of this presidency to the end. Inflation from one year to the next was 1.4% during the month he left office, January 2021.
Trump, saying that he has lowered prices since his return in late January, said that “gasoline was a lot of less than $ 3”. This is true in certain parts of the country, but the national average for regular gasoline the day it spoke was about $ 3.24 per gallon, according to Data published by AAA– higher than the day of the inauguration of Trump, when the national AAA average was around $ 3.12.
This does not mean that Trump is responsible for the increase; Presidents have a limited impact on gas prices, and there was a greater increase compared to the equivalent period last year. But the national average has not fallen during this presidency to date.
This story has been updated with additional details.